Waverider
by Pernshinigami
Summary: Set in Soucon MUSH's altpern, young Gwen finds her lifemate on the most harrowing night of her young life. songfic with Dtechnolife by UVERworldoneshot, mention of Yuri


Notes: This is the origin of my screen name. The story of a dragonrider set in Soucon MUSH's altpern. Her name is Gwen, and this is her story. Songfic to D-technolife by UVERworld

* * *

**Waverider**

She was everybody's little sister, always behind the others, or she felt it. Never had she ever, ever, ever confided in her clutchsiblings and fellow candidates that she'd felt overwhelmed those heady days. She'd watched her friends around her be snatched up by the Search dragons, both hoping and fearing all at once that those rainbow eyes would turn to her.

_Injured with pain and sadness, the you that cannot be healed _

_Shoulder the burden of the past that cannot be erased; don't throw away your will to live _

_Your hand that I held...Will we lose it someday?_

The steam was incredible as the girl stepped into the inferno, her sungold hair sticking to her back in the ponytail she kept it in. The smells of steam, was this a sauna or a hatching ground? Water rushed over hers and her classmates feet. She heard little Jerim coughing as he tried to find an area with slightly lower steam. She trembled like a leaf, trying to be brave. But all around she could see murky shapes moving, eggs rocking, hear the cries of the hatchlings as one by one they found their partners.

_I want to protect you and that disappearing smile _

_The ringing voice that calls me dries out _

_Even if it gets erased by the wind along with time _

_I will find you_

She'd heard the rumble this morning, the rushing back and forth of the adults as they exclaimed about water rushing onto the hatching grounds. Never had she pictured this frenzy as she was forced to stumble her way through the melee. She'd agreed to help the little one, youngest of her friends, to stay with her while the hatching was in progress, to watch her back while the dragons chose their lifemates. Never had she even dreamed that it would be this hard. They hadn't been kidding when they'd said that Southern Hatchings were cursed.

A yell from Fiora somewhere in the distance, the other girl two turns older, Reldak's sweetheart. (And an inward malicious grin, since she still wasn't interested in romance at 15 turns.) She steers the younger away from a burning spume of the stuff flooding the grounds.

He has awoken, his consciousness searching, reaching like a tiny paper boat candle lit, on the eventide as it prepares to take him from familiar shores. He must find strength, and beauty, and friendship.

_Injured with pain and sadness, the you that cannot be healed _

_Don't say words like you can't smile or you hate people _

_Everything that happens in the unseen future has a meaning _

_So stay like this, there'll come a time when you will realize _

_Like a rusted person_

She listens carefully for the yells of warning and to the names chiming across the Hatching Caverns. Despite the noise the voices carry, a chaotic harmony playing over her ears as she takes in the steam and the water rushing and churning around her feet. Somehow the sensation of the water at her toes, despite its heat, makes the sensation more real in one of the most surreal nights of her life.

Finally she growls in frustration. "How are we supposed to impress if we can't see our noses in front of our faces."

_It felt so hollow to just pile atop one another _

_You said you could live on your own _

_Just with the usual kind words _

_You ache to a point where I cannot reach you_

The voice that responds to her through the mist, quiet, female, lilting and calm. "The dragonets will find you..." It is only later that she will learn from the comment of the woman that will eventually become her lover, when the die has been cast, serenity is the only thing that one can do. So she waits, tense, as she listens to the voices around her in the steam from Pern's own inferno...

"Oh, food! You know...I can't cook, Wierth, so...how about something raw?"

"Y-yes, Goranth, I-I promise I'll feed you and fix that itch."

"Jerenith! You frightened me, that's all! Yes, I'll be O'klan, if you want."

_Your hand that I held searched for some simple kindness _

_Do you remember _

_By learning pain, you can become a person who can be kind to others _

_Drive your Life_

Further he struggles, his fury violent now. He has sisters and brothers and friends waiting outside, and the One, when he finds it. And he is trapped, consciousness surging now, a jetstream, powerful, but its potential undetectable in the big picture that is the dancefloor.

Then a voice she knew very well. "Oh Arisanth, Perfection it is Oh you must be starving"

Terilla, one of her friends from the barracks. And Arisanth? The girl gulps nervously. Where is she? Her congratulations for her friend ring like a bell through the mug and mire. But by now the out and out fear is gone. She has the rhythmn of the dance now around her.

"Niasyth!" Delanedra!

Ringing its cacophany, he is born, hide wet spattered with droplets as he struggles both to comprehend his surroundings, the source of the water, the fact that he is indeed now free, and how to move these clumsy things called legs.

She stands sentinal, quiet, the wallflower of the club. Together with the little one she waits, ready to run, to bolt into hiding.

_Injured with pain and sadness, the you that cannot be healed _

_Don't say words like you can't smile or you hate people _

_Everything that happens in the unseen future has a meaning _

_So stay like this, there'll come a time when you will realize _

_How can I see the meaning of life_

In the frenetic darkness of the dance hall he stumbles, now wrapped in sand, a rainswept hatchling with all the fire of the morning sun in his heart.

"Casanth? I'm here, you'll never be alone! Of course we'll get you something to eat." There she is, the one she will call sister, comforting the tiny indigo blue hatchling that has chosen her for life. Kendall, who hates fish, who used to run chore races with her across the paths and clearings of their jungle home, Southern.

He catches sight of her, short, tiny even. Her golden hair matching the color of her heart. But just as quickly her form is obscured in the dance floor, the mist swirling around her. But the path is now clear.

_Disappearing, you're the only. . ._

She is worried now, many many eggs have hatched. Her friends have also gone on. Will she be left behind again? Will she once more sit by the wayside while her friends go on to fly into the topazuline southern skies?

He finds her, tumbling out of the crowd, bugling his triumph at his jewel, his treasure. Hair golden as the sun, eyes bright as emeralds, skin tanned and healthy from hard work and inner strength. I have found you, you are mine, and I will help you fly.

_So you will not break, you distance yourself from me _

_Don't say words like you can't smile or you hate people_

She turns, startled, for he has taken her by surprise. He is hers. His love is in her heart, a heart that howls with the thrill of a hurricane in high gear. She will never again be alone, as a tsunami of emotion fills her heart, a thirst for adventure. Even as the little one with her backs off and is claimed by another, even as the boy, the serious one Reldak gains his brown and becomes a man, the world has spun around and around and now she is complete, the dance fulfilled and another begun.

_Now it's by and by, even if you cannot see, there's a meaning to everything _

_Shoulder the burden of the past that cannot be erased; don't throw away your will to live_

He calls his name lovingly into her heart as he makes his promise to her, words that she has never shared with anyone. **Ah my dear Gwen, did you think I'd let you stand there all by yourself forever?** His rich, tempestous and stirring baritone questions her tenderly. **Your Saeynth would never do that to you. Now, I'm rather hungry. How about we go and find some food then?**

As he and she walk off the grounds, as her heart is forever stained blue with the tides of adventure and journies flown and walked into the sunset, his hide becomes visible, the stormy shades of an oncoming hurricane.

_You'd better forget everything. Remember. . . your different Life?  
You'd better forget everything. Remember. . . though, we cannot return Like in times of warped memories, we can understand someday_

_Don't say words like you can't smile or you hate people_


End file.
